Caledonian Sleeper

The new Caledonian Sleeper rolling stock will be brought in on the Lowland route between London and Glasgow and Edinburgh from spring 2019 (rather than the original date of October 2018). This is due to a delay in the availability of the new trains.

The new trains on the Highland route between London and Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William will debut from spring 2019 as planned.

c2c

From Monday 10 December c2c are making alterations to a small number of weekday trains (listed below) to improve the overall service provided. There are no changes to any weekend services.

Towards London:

08:00 Shoeburyness – London Fenchurch Street: This service is extended to 12-carriages and will have a faster journey time to London

08:04 Southend Central – London Fenchurch Street: This service will no longer run as its carriages have been added to the 08:00 Shoeburyness service (above)

09:57 Shoeburyness – London Fenchurch Street: This service is extended to 8-carriages

15:55 Shoeburness – London Fenchurch Street: This service will no longer call at Limehouse

16:13 Southend Central – London Fenchurch Street: This service will now start from Shoeburyness at 16:03, calling additionally at Thorpe Bay and Southend East before resuming its current timings from Southend Central

16:18 Laindon – London Fenchurch Street: This service will no longer run

16:49 Pitsea – London Fenchurch Street: This service will no longer call at West Ham

17:28 Grays – London Fenchurch Street: This service will no longer call at Limehouse

19:42 Grays – London Fenchurch Street: This service will now start from Pitsea at 19:25, then run fast to Grays where it continues its current timings

From London:

06:46 London Fenchurch Street – Southend Central: This service will call additionally at Southend East, Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness

07:40 London Fenchurch Street – Grays: Additional service, calling at West Ham, Barking and Grays only

08:17 London Fenchurch Street – Shoeburyness: Additional service, calling at West Ham, Barking, Basildon, Benfleet and all stations to Shoeburyness

08:59 London Fenchurch Street – Shoeburyness: This service will no longer run

09:17 London Fenchurch Street – Shoeburyness: This service will no longer run

Chiltern Railways

The 2018/2019 Winter timetable will be mostly the same as the 2018 Summer timetable, but with some minor improvements. For example, some of the Oxford to London Marylebone services will now be one minute faster following the Network Rail line upgrade at Oxford.

Grand Central

Great Northern

Monday to Friday - An additional 200 services will be added to the Monday to Friday timetable on Thameslink and Great Northern routes from Monday 10 December. 30 additional services will operate during the morning and evening peak and 170 services off-peak. This will bring the total number of daily Monday to Friday train services that operate across Great Northern, Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink to 3,600.

Saturday and Sunday - There will be no change to the timetable on Saturdays or Sundays.

Moorgate Route - Additional train carriages will be introduced for services to and from Moorgate on the Great Northern route. The new carriages, built by Siemens, have air conditioning, Wi-Fi and power points and will provide a 27% increase in capacity. Most current train times remain unchanged but please check your journey as new services may provide additional journey options.

Northern

ScotRail

Announcing the changes to its timetable from 9 December 2018, ScotRail has said it will deliver faster journeys, more seats, and more services for its customers.

The introduction of high-speed trains and brand-new class 385 electric trains, as well as major infrastructure improvements like the electrification of the Stirling-Dunblane-Alloa route, will enable the delivery of the enhanced timetable. Some of the key changes include:

Faster journeys

Fastest journey time between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street of 42 minutes

Journey times on services from Stirling to Edinburgh will be reduced by more than five minutes

Rail journeys in key locations will now be considerably faster than car journeys

Journey times on key Glasgow – Stirling / Dunblane / Alloa services will be reduced by up to five minutes.

More services

New half hourly service between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street High Level (via Cumbernauld and Falkirk Grahamston) using brand new electric class 385 trains

New hourly service between Dundee and Arbroath, providing close to an hourly local service for Broughty Ferry, Monifieth, and Carnoustie

New hourly between Aberdeen and Montrose, providing a minimum of an hourly service at Laurencekirk, Stonehaven, and Portlethen

Nine additional services between Inverness and Elgin, giving close to an hourly all-day service for Nairn, Forres and Elgin.

Starting in March 2019, an all-year-round Sunday timetable will be introduced on the West Highland line, giving customers more opportunity throughout the year to travel on one of the world’s most scenic rail journeys. The changes will mean two return trips between Mallaig and Glasgow, and an additional return trip between Mallaig and Fort William, running every Sunday, throughout the year. Currently only one return trip operates between Mallaig and Glasgow on Sundays between November and March.

Southeastern

South Western Railway

South Western Railway had been preparing for a major timetable change in December 2018 to provide customers with access to additional services and extra capacity throughout the day.

But they are mindful of the disruption to customers that happened with other major timetable changes elsewhere in May 2018. So despite South Western Railway’s desire to deliver the increased capacity and extra services as soon as possible to customers, it has been decided at a national level that a period of stability is needed.

South Western Railway will not be implementing any changes to the December 2018 timetable and instead rolling over the May 2018 timetable.

Preparations to deliver the extra services, capacity improvements and reduced journey times will continue. Over the coming weeks South Western Railway will be seeking to confirm plans as to how the 90 additional Class 442 vehicles which are presently being refurbished can be progressively introduced into service in the existing timetable to allow other trains to be cascaded elsewhere on their network. As part of the refurbishment of the Class 444/450 fleets they will also be delivering an increase in standard class seating capacity through internal reconfiguration of these vehicles which will progressively increase capacity through to Spring 2019.

Southern

Monday to Friday - Most Southern services will continue to operate to the current timetable, although some services could experience minor changes to times. Morning peak services on the East Coastway route will have changes to improve connections with Southeastern trains at Ashford International and St Leonards Warrior Square.

An additional 200 Thameslink and Great Northern services will operate Monday to Friday, with many calling at Southern stations.

There will be no change to the Southern timetable on Saturdays or Sundays.